ON HER FEAST DAY (OCTOBER 1) … A GLIMPSE INTO THERESE'S CARMEL

A GLIMPSE OF CARMEL THROUGH THE EYES OF ST. THERESE 

When we first meet and read the inspired and inspiring words of St Teresa of Jesus, the Madre of St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, our soul may be deeply moved with profound gratitude to God for this astonishing woman.  In her teachings, Teresa of Avila presents to us a radical understanding of friendship with God which does not distinguish the struggling yearning for holiness of a lay person from that of the great saints or the holiness of clergy and religious. St Teresa of Jesus, Doctor of the Church,  can, in turn,  become our own greatly loved Madre. Through prayer and following her teachings,  her astonishing mission can become our own : to try to proclaim to everyone we meet, in our words or in our actions, in our families , in our Church community and beyond, wherever we live or work, that Jesus Lord, God, Blessed Redeemer, longs for friendship with all.

                                                             We are one of His all.
 
                                              This is a glimpse of little Therese's Carmel.
 
Throughout our lives, we may have been spiritually challenged. These are the formation trials which are essential to growth on our spiritual journey. Perhaps during our years of trials, we have met and been taught by one of Carmel's true daughters, St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Doctor of Love. Our beloved Therese helps us as we stumble through the brambles and thorns of our ego on this Way of Perfection into the burning love of Christ's Great Heart. She lays out a table for us with a feast of “little ways" where prayer, offered in small sacrifices, hidden from the eyes of everyone but God's alone, can snatch souls for Christ Jesus Who "thirsts" for every one of them. This mission was Therese's vocation and passion in Carmel. It may become our own mission in most personal ways. A deeply loved family member who has lost their way is one for whom the Savior thirsts. 

With Therese as our spiritual director, she will reveal to us the power of her little way : to touch the heart of that loved one. In our deep sorrow and loving concern for that family member who has long since abandoned God, we may plead with them; try to convince them of the God's Presence throughout their years; in our love for them we may even argue with them. Yet, we seem to fail.

St Therese teaches us that “... strength lies in prayer and sacrifice; they are invincible weapons, and touch hearts more surely than words can do, as I have learned by experience.”

Our own words do not touch their heart. In humility we finally turn to our Savior. Through fasting and prayer, Therese’s "invincible weapons" begin to present themselves . We suddenly find that multiple suggestions of “little ways” of self-sacrifice and opportunities to offer hidden prayer for his/her soul are gradually  laid before us.

"The Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of one poor little person to save a multitude of
others, redeemed like her at the price of His Blood."

Spirit Lord graciously permits us to be one of those "poor little" ones to offer unseen sacrifices to pray that soul, and many more souls, into Heaven. We will meet them in their glorified state in Christ when we die. And their gratitude will be eternal. 

Winning souls for Christ Jesus Whose Heart thirsts and burns with love for each of God’s
children; hidden, sacrificial prayer and acts offered in "little ways" with great love.

                                         LOVE: one of the Carmelite principles. 

                                      This is a glimpse of little Therese's Carmel.

When we are struggling in the darknesses of desolation, one of God's treasured gifts to us, St Therese encourages us with this thought ...

"I know that He is better pleased to see you stumbling in the night upon a stony road, than walking in full light of day upon a path carpeted with flowers, because these flowers might hinder your advance."
 
Our disordered senses are some of those "flowers"; and they are being purified in the darknesses of desolation.

In those darkest of nights of purification, when nothing makes spiritual sense and everything  that should be just isn't, we may feel as though we have nothing to give to God. In those times of our soul's de-formation when our poorly formed spirituality is being re-formed into His Likeness, Little Therese moves quietly into our thoughts when she tells us what she did at such times …

"... when I have nothing to give Him, I give Him my nothing."

                         Perhaps we echo her words. 

                                   Very often.

And when we do,  our soul is quieted, our hope is strengthened, and we embrace our "nothing" in deep humility.

                                 HUMILITY: a second Carmelite principle.
 
                                  This is a glimpse of little Therese's Carmel. 
 
               St Teresa, St Therese, are among legions of the children of Our Lady, Queen of Carmel.
 
Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our own Blessed Mother, ever possessed by the Holy Spirit, the Pre-Redeemed one, the perfect model of loving, intimate union with God, the one filled with grace, the one whose self-emptiness was filled with God, the one who is mighty in her powerlessness, the Model of all saints, the one who was more perfect than her prayer, illumined and enflamed as she was with the Divine Fire.

                                              She is Mother in little Therese's Carmel. 

                           And our Mother taught her daughter that third Carmelite principle:

                                                              DETACHMENT.

In the depths of her gift of detachment, Therese was inspired to cry: 

"In the evening of life, I shall come before You with empty hands, for I am not asking You, Lord, to count my works."

Love filled her with Himself. 

Teresa of Jesus taught Therese and teaches us how Mary's true joy lies in having listened to God, keeping His Word in her heart, meditating on it, and faithfully putting it into practice. Mary is the Woman made Prayer. 

                      This is a glimpse into little Therese's love of her Mother and Queen of Carmel.

Our Little Flower, Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, gave us that most profound self-abandoning tool ...THE LITTLE WAY. Yet, she beautifully directs our thoughts away from herself and invites us to give love and honor to Our Blessed Mother  when she describes Our Lady as "the Embodiment of the Little Way".

When we abandon ourselves in little ways of self-sacrifice to plead for the soul of another, our Beloved Mother, being entirely our Mother, our Immaculata, takes our pleading and makes it her own property: her complete and exclusive property. Our prayer is now her own, now offered without stain, immaculate, like herself. And her Sacred Spouse, Spirit Lord, enfolds her, and all that she owns, in His burning Love. Our petitions, now her petitions, are swaddled within the Divine Three. 

                                         THIS IS A GLIMPSE INTO THERESE'S CARMEL.

                                                                        AND OURS.